I want you to know more about BABYMETAL's songs. As you all know, it's "bébiméṭl" not "béɪbiméṭl".

2015/02/15

Prolog to Red Night

Included in "LIVE AT BUDOKAN" (released on 2015 Jan. 7th).

Prologue to "Red Night" on 2014 Mar. 1st

These are foxes.
I am a messenger who carries the "oracles" from the Fox God, the God of Metal,
KOBAMETAL DEATH!!

Everybody, welcome to the live house "Rockmaykan". No. I mean, welcome to the live house "Budokan".
Today the legendary event named "Corset Festival" which was held at Rockmaykan in Meguro
is moved here to Nippon Budokan, and, as "Giant Corset Festival",
it revives.

Are there men who attended the previous "Corset Festival" here?
Good! Good!

For BABYMETAL and for you too, this "Giant Corset Festival" is
"Metal Martial Arts Tournament for the Strongest under Heaven, the Final".

When the jet-black darkness is dyed crimson, the Fox God,
in order to give BABYMETAL more power,
sends down the god band of the Metal...,
the gods of guitar,
the god of bass,
and the god of drums.

The strongest metal band play
the "tunes of steel" which were recorded in the major scripture "BABYMETAL" given by the Fox God.
From the moment the first sound breaks out, without a stop,
they play all tunes continuously as if a suite.
That is to say, there is no talk between songs and no encore.
From the moment you have worn the corset on your neck, already the battle
has begun.
Yes, towards the ruin...

And today we are recording your brave figures,
so I want you to attend here keeping the corset steady on your neck.
Everybody, are you ready with your neck?
I ask you again.
Are you ready with your neck?
And then, the "Giant Corset Festival" is starting now!

ROMAJI TRANSCRIPTION AND NOTES ARE BELOW.

The words enclosed in [ ] were displayed on the screen but omitted in the speech (they don't matter in translation).

A few lines of the translation don't correspond line by line to the transcription (because the Japanese sentences displayed on the screen were chopped, regardless of the grammatical structures, into a pair of lines with 12-16 characters per line).

Prologue to "Red Night" on 2014 Mar. 1st

Romaji Transcription

English Translation

Notes

Kitsune da oo.

These are foxes.

1

Metaru no kami Kitsune sama kara no "otsuge" o todokeru messenjaa

I am a messenger who carries the "oracles" from the Fox God, the God of Metal,

KOBAMETAL DEATH!!

KOBAMETAL DEATH!!

Shokun raibu hausu Rokumeikan, iya, raibu hausu Bodookan e yookoso.

Everybody, welcome to the live house "Rockmaykan". No. I mean, welcome to the live house "Budokan".

the "tunes of steel" which were recorded in the major scripture "BABYMETAL" given by the Fox God.

7

hitotabi oto ga naridashita toki kara tomaru koto naku

From the moment the first sound breaks out, without a stop,

8

marude kumikyoku no gotoku kanade tsuzukeru no da.

they play all tunes continuously as if a suite.

sunawachi MC mo nakereba ankooru mo nai.

That is to say, there is no talk between songs and no encore.

9

Shokun ga kubi ni korusetto o tuketa shunkan kara sudeni batoru wa

From the moment you have worn the corset on your neck, already the battle

hajimatte iru no de aru.

has begun.

Soo hametsu e mukatte...

Yes, towards the ruin...

10

Soshite honjitsu wa shokun no yuushi o satsuei shite iru node

And today we are recording your brave figures,

shikkari to kubi ni korusetto o tsukete idonde itadaki-tai.

so I want you to attend here keeping the corset steady on your neck.

Shokun kubi no junbi wa dekite iru ka?

Everybody, are you ready with your neck?

Moo ichido kiku.

I ask you again.

Kubi no junbi wa dekite iru ka?

Are you ready with your neck?

Soredewa "Kyodai Korusetto Matsuri" hajjimarru yoo.

And then, the "Giant Corset Festival" is starting now!

11

Notes

"da o(o)" is a childish form of "da yo". He imitated YUIMETAL & MOAMETAL in PV of "IINE" (at the end of the rap part).

"Welcome to the live house 'Budokan'" is a famous phrase. Kyosuke HIMURO, the vocalist of a rock band BOØWY, said this when they played at Budokan for the first time. In Japan the word "live house" originally refers to cafes, bars, or restaurants where live concerts are held. Rumor says, when he said this phrase, he was reminded of the years since they started performing at a small live house until now they played in front of 10,000 people. And, following him, many musicians say this phrase on their first performance at Budokan.

"Corset Festival" is BABYMETAL's first solo concert held on 2012 Jul. 21st at Rokumeikan (or "Rockmaykan", with the capacity of 250 people) in Meguro, Tokyo.

"Nihon" & "Nippon" are equally used for Japan. The official reading of Budokan is "Nippon Budôkan", but he read it as "Nihon".

"者" (mono) is used to refer to person(s) only when the speaker regards them as inferior to himself (e.g. an officer to soldiers).
In the Chinese cultural sphere, if the sender of the message is superior to the receiver, the messenger acts superior to the receiver because the messenger represents the sender. In these two lines, however, this messenger obviously didn't represent the sender because the Fox God of course knew and need not ask who attended that concert. He seems to have confused his own status and that of the messenger.

"Tenka-ichi Budookai" (= Strongest under the Heavens Martial Arts Tournament) is the fictional tournament of martial artists depicted in "Dragon Ball" (a famous Japanese manga).
In the concert on 2013 May 18th, the Summer Sonic Festival 2013 was introduced as "Tenka-ichi Metaru Bodookai". Probably other rock festivals in which BABYMETAL performed in the summer & autumn of 2013 are other rounds of the tournament. And this concert was said to be the final round of the tournament.

Seikima-II (the End of the Century) called their CD albums as "dai-kyooten" (= major scriptures).

"瞬間" (shunkan; moment) was displayed on the screen, but he said "toki" (= time).

In Japan the talk between songs in a concert is also called "MC" since the master of ceremony (= MC) usually does such a talk.

Not "Hametsu e Mukatte" but "Hametsu ni Mukatte" is the title of X-Japan's concerts. The particle "e" indicates the direction of movement a little more vaguely than "ni", but I don't know whether the Fox God really meant this subtle difference or it's just...

"Hajjimarru yoo" is a playful form of "hajimaru yo". He imitated YUIMETAL & MOAMETAL at the beginning of "Kimi to Anime ga Mitai".

9 comments
:

Hey, it's me again (the subtitles guy). I incorporated this intro to my english .srt version, the only change I made was using "Final World Metal Arts Tournament" (based on the official english translation), instead of the literal translation. Since the english dub calls it the "World Martial Arts Tournament", I believe it would sound more familiar to english viewers.

Using "World" is alright, but I'm afraid "Final World Metal Arts Tournament" may mean the last tournament of that kind. It is not the case. "Summer Sonic 2013" is some round of the tournament and "Red Night" is the final round of the same tournament.

But doesn't the original uses [Fainaru]? I assumed it was a gairaigo of the english word [final]. And since the Red Night and the Black Night are the last rounds of this (in a broader sense) phase or tour, it seemed a good fit. And while [final] has that "ending" sense, it might also be a synonym of [ultimate]; meaning not the last or end of something, but only the greatest so far.

And I only felt the need to change the sentence because the correct literal translation wouldn't "ring a bell" to english listeners, because of the changes already made to the anime dub. In the anime they call it [World Martial Arts Tournament] (which does sound pretty generic) so if somebody heard [Strongest under the Heavens Martial Arts Tournament] they wouldn't link it to Dragonball.

This "final" is that of "the final, semi-finals and quarter-finals of one tournament".I don't know well what 'he' really wanted to mean, but, in the epilogue for Legend "1997", Red Night was introduced as an event in which those who are chosen from all over the world will aim at being the world's strongest. It should mean Summer Sonic 2013 was not the World Metal Tournament but a mere elimination round of the tournament (this very often happens in Japanese manga) and only Red Night is the World Metal Tournament the winner of which is the world's strongest in this period.

It's not the plural form of the adjective [final], it's the noun form. It marks the end of a game, contest (so, "the final") or round of a series (so, "the finals", because there was more than one round).